Red Sox's Lucas Giolito Has 3-Word Response To Upcoming Boston Debut

The Boston Red Sox have had to wait 16 months since the signing, but Lucas Giolito is finally nearing his regular-season debut for the club.

After undergoing internal brace surgery to repair a partially torn UCL last March, Giolito was on track to be in the starting rotation by Opening Day. Unfortunately, he tweaked his hamstring on the first pitch of his first spring training outing, and it set him back enough that he instead began the season on the injured list.

Giolito has been steadily progressing in his rehab, throwing a new high of 64 pitches on Wednesday during his outing for Triple-A Worcester. It was the tall righty's second rehab outing, as he's now totaled 5 2/3 innings, one earned run, and five strikeouts.

At a time when the Red Sox could certainly use a reliable fifth starter, Giolito appears close, but not quite fully ready, to make his long-awaited debut. He'll probably need at least one more rehab start, but that debut could easily come within the next two weeks.

After Wednesday's outing, Giolito had a clear message about pitching for the Red Sox: it's been a long time coming, and he's ready.

“I’m very excited,” Giolito said, per Tommy Cassell of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. “I’ve pitched in Fenway before as a visiting player, and it always felt very special to me. So being able to go and wear the red and white out there is going to be really, really cool.”

“It was just a very annoying setback at a terrible time that basically pushed my spring training to right now,” Giolito said. “So now it’s all about just getting good rhythm (and) tempo in my delivery, getting the pitch count back up there because I haven’t pitched in a long time. So just going to continue to progress."

Not only do the Red Sox need Giolito to perform, but it's a big year for him personally. If he gets to the 140-inning threshold, he and the Red Sox will have a $19 million mutual option, but if he throws less, it becomes a $14 million club option. Either way, he's auditioning for 29 other teams with every start he makes.

Boston doesn't need Giolito to be the pitcher he was in 2021, when he made the American League All-Star team, but it would go a long way toward the team's goal of making a playoff appearance if he could give them a high volume of quality starts.

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